Railway cup returns!

[Captain Obvious]

Well, nearly 3,000 people were interested on Sunday!

How did it take up valuable weekends? The NFL will be finished at the same time as last year (even with the semis), club finals on St Patricks day as usual, championship starts at same time. What competition were disrupted because of the Railway Cup? None!

3,000 from an Ulster "GAA friendly" population of around 1 million. How many travelled from Munster I wonder.
2,860 was official attendance.
How many NFL games could have been played last 2 weekends and avoid having 4 games in 4 successive weekends which has to have a negative effect on attendances.
As for NFL Semis .... for f**** sake . Next we'll have quarter finals ... and then why not a round of 16 as well . 
Mid Louth -- I don't sit around talking sh1te in Committees - I'd  be out doing things.
Only place I express opinions ( sensible ones in my view  ) is here in GAABoard.

Semis are fantastic. Their removal took an edge out of the league structure. Obviously they should be two semi finalists each from an amalgamated D1 and D2, though. 4/7 in one division is a little silly, to say the least. I just hope the brass are using the semis this year as a transitional phase towards going back to 1A/B divisions, it'll help elevate plenty of teams by playing better opposition as well as freshening up what's become a league that's a little stagnant at the top end.

f**k no way, 1A 1B 2A 2B elavates all you counties underserving of division 1 status. Earn it like Mayo has, division 1's longest surviving member. Let the riffraff climb up not demean the top counties.

Semi finals for division of eight teams is daft.

[fearbrags]

http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/gaa/dallas-may-host-2014-interpro-deciders-214735.html

[DuffleKing]

Sure that's pure madness. Playing the railway cup overseas makes it more attractive for the players but that isn't the issue. The challenge is to make it more attractive tothe ordinary GAA supporter.

If we are serious about promoting the games internationally we are far better served playing national league or championship games there

[Zulu]

Makes perfect sense to me. The RC is a non event in Ireland so if you're going to invest in it why not give the players a nice trip and promote the game internationally? I'm a member of an international club and it would be great for us to bring our kids to see these games and it would be the occasion in which we could build a major promotional and fundraising drive around.

By playing it abroad the RC can retain dome relevance and even achieve some good, playing it at home is just flogging a dead horse.

[yellowcard]

Sure that's pure madness. Playing the railway cup overseas makes it more attractive for the players but that isn't the issue. The challenge is to make it more attractive tothe ordinary GAA supporter.

If we are serious about promoting the games internationally we are far better served playing national league or championship games there

To be honest I think the only people that care about it are the players themselves so I see no harm in playing it overseas. The GAAIs based largely on tribalism and identity and that is hard to create at inter provincial level and so supporters don't care much for the result. I'll guarantee not too many people could even name the last few winners.

[rodney trotter]

Sure that's pure madness. Playing the railway cup overseas makes it more attractive for the players but that isn't the issue. The challenge is to make it more attractive tothe ordinary GAA supporter.

If we are serious about promoting the games internationally we are far better served playing national league or championship games there

To be honest I think the only people that care about it are the players themselves so I see no harm in playing it overseas. The GAAIs based largely on tribalism and identity and that is hard to create at inter provincial level and so supporters don't care much for the result. I'll guarantee not too many people could even name the last few winners.

Seems to be only Ulster who give it 100% attention.. There is never any time for it, between club and County and then college football.

Its a great competition if it had a schelduded time on the GAA calendar. The final was played in Paris one year in November and it was a succees

[fearbrags]

A great idea , It would be held in the middle of  the North Texas Irish festival . So  there would be large crowd there ( unlike other allstar games  etc who just attract a small Irish crowd
Must of the crowd would be Americans who have never seen the sports

[Eamonnca1]

There's talk of bringing more high profile games to the states too, such as the national league finals.  If the Irish public isn't going to fill Croke Park for the finals then you might as well take them to an audience that'll appreciate them.  I say bring the NHL final to Indianapolis. The Indy hurling club (one of the biggest in the USA at over 200 members) have a track record of publicizing the game beyond the traditional GAA audience. If anybody can generate popular interest in an event it's the Indy club.

[Orchardman]

i like the railway cup and wish it was a success, but what about these crowds in the states? how many have ever bothered to turn up to all star game, maybe 1,000?

What was this success in paris someone mentioned? it was in paris and rome around 8 years ago, and no body turned up

[Zulu]

I'm not sure how many turned up for them but they have a bigger impact on the GAA community abroad when played there. They have no impact at home.

[Eamonnca1]

Play the game in Ireland and you'd be lucky if 5 people in the crowd had never seen the game before.

Play the game in the states and you'd be looking at potentially a few hundred people in the crowd who have never seen the game before.  Plus whatever local TV coverage it can get, that adds a few thousand on.  It's also a huge morale boost for the established local GAA community.

If you want to expose the game to new audiences then you have a better chance of doing it outside of Ireland.  (You could reach new audiences in Ireland too with a bit of clever marketing, but "clever marketing" seldom appears in the same sentence as "GAA".)

[ross4life]

Returns Sunday 17th of Feb.

Hurling

12:30pm - Ulster v Munster - Athletic Grounds
2pm - Leinster v Connacht - O Connor park

Football

2pm - Leinster v Connacht - Pearse park
2:15pm - Ulster v Munster - Athletic Grounds

[BennyCake]

Any news on where the finals will be played?

[ross4life]

Probably decided after those games. Didn't Ulster have a home final last year.

[Rossfan]

Returns Sunday 17th of Feb.

Hurling

12:30pm - Ulster v Munster - Athletic Grounds
2pm - Leinster v Connacht - O Connor park

Football

2pm - Leinster v Connacht - Pearse park
2:15pm - Ulster v Munster - Athletic Grounds

Hope the N4/N5 don't get clogged up with all the match traffic